Steal A Moment

Concept & Direction: Jakob Proyer & Sarah Kate Gardiner

Steal A Moment: Performances For An Urban Playground is an interdisciplinary project involving movement, dance, theatre and video in public space. The methods of site-specific theatre, dance improvisation and choreography are skillfully combined to reframe urban neighbourhoods. The city is our source of inspiration for these series of dance interventions where social choreographies emerge from daily life, blurring the line between performer, spectator and passer-by. For a taster please watch our Trailerhere.

Steal A Moment

Our audience is led to explore the city and its playful potential anew, where the performers, pedestrians, traffic, architecture and the natural elements are considered dance partners. For the observer as much as the makers, experiencing the city changes as spaces are being reframed and redefined with new meanings through these interactions. We pay special attention to carefully position our audience in a series of forgotten corners of the city, the in between and seemingly odd spaces. Thus offering new perspectives on familiar places, making for a seamless experience intergrated in a multi-layered performance.

We aim to create situations that challenge our perception of the assumed rules in public space and creatively make use of them. The uban landscape is fully examined for its potential for fantasy, as a playground for these new experiences to enchant a diverse and often unsuspecting audience!

Steal A Moment

Steal A Moment is a joint project of choreographer Sarah Kate Gardiner and theatre maker Jakob Proyer. In april 2012 we researched our methodology with a group of experienced dancers and created a series of photos and video shorts. On the invitation of production house Dansmakers Amsterdam,we crafted a 45 minute live production for their PUNCH! Festival For New Choreographic Talent. A site-specific, en promenade piece where 5 dancers use a set framework of locations, positions and movement phrases to improvise their way through diverse neighbourhoods in Amsterdam north. All the outdoor elements en route were skillfully interwoven where architecture, street furniture, pedestrian, dog, cyclist, rain, wind and passing cloud played a role as dance partner. The production was supported by Dansmakers Amsterdam and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst. For an impression please watch our Trailerhere.

Steal A Moment review: I absolutely loved it! Smart choreography and placing of the audience – to focus on the environment in a specific way. The dancers presence amongst public opened up the space so that I noticed many things, not only the movement. The contact duet behind the glass wall right in front of us was wonderful, intense. Out of intensely physical dramatic moments came stillness and then something new emerged. I liked the timings. The energy revving up and then the ballet solo amongst the trees – so beautiful, she really danced her life (or? a secret…). The dancers rolling together over and under in the rainy grass, tactile and intimate and the ending a surprise, a real present, right here and now.

Pauline de Groot, Dance Artist & Co-founder School For New Dance Development (SNDO), The Theatre School Amsterdam

We are very happy to announce our video ‘Headstand’ has been selected from 163 entries for CINEDANS One Minute Film Competition 2013! A packed audience attended the screening of shorts at the Eye Film Institute in March. Check both our Steal A Moment entries:

On the invitation of Dansmakers AmsterdamSteal A Moment crafted a 45 minute live production for their festival PUNCH! A site-specific, en promenade piece where 5 dancers use a set framework of locations, positions and movement phrases to improvise their way through diverse neighbourhoods in Amsterdam north. All the outdoor elements en route were skillfully interwoven where architecture, street furniture, pedestrian, dog, cyclist, rain, wind and passing cloud played a role as dance partner. The production was supported by Dansmakers Amsterdam and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst. For an impression please watch our Trailerhere.

During April 2012 Steal A Moment led a research intensive in site-specific dance/theatre and choreography in public space, exploring movement phrases, actions and dance improvisation with both open and closed scores. Working in diverse locations from the dance studio to a ferry point, carpark, museum, bike racks and neighbourhood playground. This research resulted in a unique series of photos and videos and an ever deepening methodology of dance in public space, supported by Dansmakers Amsterdam and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.